Man charged with rape of unconscious women in Capitol Hill apartment

A Capitol Hill man has been charged with the rape of two unconscious women and detectives are still hoping to identify one of the victims in a case centered on a Boylston Ave apartment where police say they have proof the sexual assaults occurred after two business associates discovered secret cameras, and a stash of incriminating recordings.

“The women who were raped have no memory of the event and were not even aware that they had been raped until they were contacted by Seattle Police in the course of this investigation,” prosecutors write.

Redwolf Pope has been charged with two counts of second degree rape in the assaults at the Boylston-Howell building in the 1700 block of Boylston. Pope maintained a fourth-floor residence in the Capitol Hill Housing building, available only to tenants earning 40% and 50% of area median income, and another in Santa Fe where he faces similar charges for a sexual assault on a Seattle-area woman.

According to court documents on the Seattle assaults, the two women associates of Pope who turned over the videos to police were staying in his Capitol Hill apartment while he was away when they discovered the cameras and that it was common for people to stay in the unit including when Pope hosted “Airbnb” guests.

“The defendant hid video cameras around his apartment in Seattle where he captured images of friends who he invited in his home, as well as his unwitting roommates,” prosecutors write. “Most disturbingly, the defendant filmed himself raping women, women who were friends of the defendant.”

Seattle Police say the first rape on the videos discovered this past May was recorded on video November 30, 2016 and shows an unidentified woman being sexually violated in Pope’s Capitol Hill apartment bedroom. “As S/Pope sexually assaulted V/Jane Doe, penis to vagina, she does not move in the slightest,” police write of the video showing the attack on the woman:

S/Pope continues to rape V/Jane Doe, who does not react or move. At one point, S/Pope reaches up and physically moves V/Jane Doe’s head and lifts her sleep mask slightly, exposing her face just a little bit more, but only for a moment. The rest of her body does not move as/after he moves her head and lifts the sleep mask.

Detectives were able to identify and interview a woman being sexually assaulted in a second video dated July 27, 2017. A third video shows what police say is a rape inside a Santa Fe hotel room.

Police say beyond the raw videos showing the assaults and women showering, Pope made his videos into a movie complete with a soundtrack. “The defendant was so proud of his repulsive behavior that spliced together the three known rape videos and compiled a montage set to music,” prosecutors write.

The Marysville, Washington woman police were able to identify as the victim in the second video said Pope had given her a sweet beverage before she blacked out:

Pope, who attended Seattle University, has positioned himself as a tech entrepreneur and a Native American activist. He garnered attention for his “Lessons of courage from Standing Rock” TEDx presentation he made in Seattle in 2017. TEDx has since removed his presentation from its site:

TEDxSeattle was shocked to learn of the criminal charges filed against RedWolf Pope in July 2018. We find the kind of acts alleged in the charges to be abhorrent. TEDxSeattle is committed to the betterment of our community.

The 41-year-old is currently jailed in Phoenix and is fighting extradition to New Mexico. Police are still working to identify his second victim.

To the author of the post, I encourage you to read this article as your headline exactly falls into this paradigm. Per the author, Crosscut will feature another article on how Seattle should respond to sexual harassment and assault. I’ll emphasize that I appreciate the prompt and full coverage of this and wasn’t aware of how the headlines and other framing ties to a systemic issue. Take the article as you will, but it’s interesting to me how the headline isn’t simply “Redwolf Pope Charged with…” https://crosscut.com/2018/08/how-himpathy-marginalizes-women-metoo

We’ve updated the headline. I read this piece by Dr. Myhre and took it to heart yesterday. It was part of my process for forming the headline. But I agree I let my old habits of specificity outweigh the “himpathy” issues in the headline. I think the new headline works well enough but I do have longterm concerns as an editor how to give stories interesting, useful, sometimes clever, hopefully clear headlines and also not contribute to the unhealthy framing. That’s only a word/construction issue that I’m sure I’ll learn to better solve. I used to really struggle with headlines about driver-pedestrian collisions. It felt weird and sometimes too vague not to write “hit by a car.” With practice, the language problems can be solved — or at least be slightly improved.

I’m so glad you are thinking about all these issues. You’re the journalist and a good one and I’m sure can be part of the change, solving that balance of issues you’re talking about. I’m looking forward to the follow-up Crosscut article and also just having more of a critical eye myself on those systemic issues that impact language and interactions. I see this “himpathy” issue in other media too, like focusing on a potential Matt Laeur redemption story arc (a pop culture media outlet had an article about his beach vacation I didn’t click on) and an article about Bill Cosby complaining how a potential violent sexual predator classification will hurt his relationship with his family. It’s interesting when there is the element of celebrity and it would otherwise not make the news. It’s also horrible when the aura of celebrity ties in with that systemic “himpathy” issue. And sometimes it’s just plain people in power who can’t easily be taken down (Les Moonves). It also just comes down to agency. You can see the power of all the survivors speaking out against Dr. Nassar, but meanwhile for several prior years, individuals weren’t believed. How could one person’s voice not count but combined voices count? If the individual voices were worthless to the powers that be, how is worthless times 250+ equal to anything but zero? So there is a power in coming together and building agency. Maybe less people will read an article without a “himpathy” hook, but those who do read it may be people who have empathy and care about the crime in general in a different, selfless way. I’m definitely going to keep paying attention to all this. There’s no way not to.

Hey CHS, I just want to put my two cents in to say (as a woman and a feminist who has also read the Sarah Myhre article) that I thought the old headline was perfectly fine and in fact better than the current headline. Readers want to know if they may have interacted with people accused of heinous crimes (especially here, where the cops are saying the victims might not be aware that they’re victims!). Hiding information about the alleged perp behind the bland term “man” (duh, really?) does no one any service.

Thanks. He would have been a “Capitol Hill man” but I was able to get it into the headline to describe the apartment instead. Happy to pull back the curtain on how journalism “works.” And how it doesn’t. I agree with you in general, though, that something is also lost when the information about the accused is wiped from the headline. Many competing priorities. I’m good with where this one ended up.

@annie My suggestion had been “Redwolf Pope Charged with…” And the information about his background would be in the body of the post. Thank you for sharing your POV. All good information for the author to consider. I will add that from my POV, it’s not a “duh” that an alleged perpetrator is a man, despite it being the vast majority. There are predators of various genders and I don’t personally assume they all identify as men so the headline as it stands now does impart valid information still, if generically. I don’t have all the answers here, just expressing my POV.

Although not the most important aspect of the article by far, it’s a good point. It’s Capitol Hill Housing apartment. They have ALL kinds of problems they sweep under the rug; punish the reporting tenants for by making life harder on them; rarely return phone calls and emails and their property management department is just utter garbage. It’s likely this guy was a problem in the building, that other tenants reported it and that those complaints went ignored. I can’t wait till someone sues Capitol Hill Housing’s azzzz. The day is coming!

I agree with the commenter Annie above. I think “previously trustworthy-seeming member of the community charged with raping unconscious women” is as important a headline as the fact it happened at all. I am curious about the whole business of headline changing though. Yesterday I read a whole angry comments thread on the Stranger accusing Charles Mudede of changing the headline of his Richard Russell story to make it more race-baiting and provocative, but I don’t know of any way to access the old versions of a story. Regardless of which headline is better or worse, it kind of seems like it should be mentioned that the headline was changed and what the previous version was, in the same way journalists have to mention if they changed the content of a story.

You mentioned you changed it, but my broader point is should there be a note that says “This article was previously published under the headline _____.” Otherwise how do we follow all the fiery comments debates about what headlines are/were/should be?

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